Microsoft has delivered the final code of Windows Server
2003 and its 64-bit SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition database to
manufacturing.Both products are on track for a 24 April
delivery to users, the company said.
Microsoft said seven members of the Windows
Server 2003 family including the Data Centre Edition, the
Datacentre Edition for 64-bit Itanium 2 servers, the Enterprise
Edition, the Enterprise Edition for 64-bit Itanium 2 Systems, the
Standard Edition and the Small Business Server version will be
available some time in the third quarter.
Bill Veghte, corporate vice-president of the
Windows Server Division at Microsoft, said, "Our 300 early adopters
are confirming that it is helping drive down overall IT costs and
providing the high levels of performance and reliability."
Windows NT 4 users stand to benefit the most
from the upcoming server. Windows Server 2003 is 100 times more
scalable and does so at one-tenth the cost per transaction compared
with NT 4 when that product was first introduced, he said.
Users should also experience 40% greater
stability, in large part because of a more robust driver model and
system recovery capabilities.
"I look at Windows Server 2003 as the
foundation of a comprehensive integrated platform that
cannot only lower IT costs and expenses but significantly help with
better deployments," Veghte said.
Windows Server 2003 has benefited from Bill
Gates Trustworthy Computing security initiative, Dave Thompson,
corporate vice-president of the Windows Server product group
added.
"I've been involved in the development of
every release of Windows Server, and this is by far the most
secure, most reliable, highest-performing server operating system
we've ever built," he said.